. >> my name is paul simpson. there's a big elephant in the room that no one's commented on. i'm wondering if someone among our esteemed panelists might stand up and respond to this. first of all, i want to say that i appreciate at least stepping in -- ed lee stepping in as the mayor jumped off. we have a situation here where the city takes in $6 billion. it takes in a lot of money. but approximately $1 billion of that are going to employee retirement benefits and current employee benefits. everyone talks about a partnership of labor. that partnership is dysfunctional. is there anyone among our officials that are prepared to stand up and say, during these times, this city has a dysfunctional partnership with organized labor that is one-sided and is draining our coughers and affecting the ability of those that live here with our families in san francisco to drive on our streets, to enjoy our playgrounds, all the playground directers have been terminated, to sharpen our local storeses where the meeters have been increased and the times on them have been reduced and bike lanes h

president is making a big speech on wednesday lake out how he feels about i assume about bow simpson and paul ryan and about his own ideas for dealing with the long term debt as well as debt issues in the current budget. >> the president is being on the sidelines watching, if you'd like, congress debate this issue for weeks. and i think it's now time, i think a lot of people, people i've spoken to including his own party supporters are expecting something substantive and it's a good time in response to paul ryan's bold production plans so i think it will be really striking if the president endorsed simpson as a credible medium term -- >> charlie: he won't endorse it but he will make a tip of his hand to it. is david cameron bold enough for you? >> he's certainly being bold in getting into that libya conflict. >> charlie: leaving economics and os tear yeah. we'll come to libya in a minute. >> yes, it is bold. it is very bold. >> charlie: is it austere too? is it a growth budget. >> not initially. we're going to suffer and a have a consumer dip. 9 british government hasn't suffered the same kin

paul ryan is talking about. >> rose: and will the president take a position on bouls simpson? >> he has to. will ultimately have to. and will find certain things, certain spots that democrats don't find acceptable and tweak them. but i talked to paul coburns very conservative senator from oklahoma today, who happens to be a personal friend of barack obamas. and they talk on the phone. sometimes a couple times a week. and he's talked to obama about boulles simpson and obama told him how much he appreciated the fact that coburn a conservative republican supported boulles simpson. >> rose: he was a member of the commission. >> he was, yes. and voted for it whereas paul ryan voted against it. >> rose: but liked certain parts of it. >> yes. but didn't like the tax increase parts. and look, charlie, you got to increase taxes and you have to cut entitlements. >> rose: that is a discussion for another day. thank you. >> it is. >> thank you, charlie. shimon peres is here, he is the president of israel. in a long and distinguished career he has been prime minister twice and has served in 12 cabinets.

>> the simpson boles commission went into it, and president obama created that commission. and paul ryan voted against their product. so how bold is that? he voted against it! >> the committee was holding on to -- government. big government. this guy wants to shrink the government, the federal government! >> you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. five minutes ago you said it will get demagogued but now you say he's not politically courageous. of course he's politically courageous. this is a key thing about medicare, medicare is a driver of health care inflation in this country. and what ryan is trying to do is inject an element of market competition into health care that is not there now. medicare is a giant check writing operation. >> it's the most popular and efficient program in this administration. >> it's not efficient! no serious health care economists will say medicare is efficient. >> answer the question. >> medicare is a huge -- on the merits, is the path to prosperity a sound plan, that's his plan, for cutting the deficit? a sound plan? >> i think it's sound. i th

paul ryan's plans. you are taking swipes at him wanting to raise taxes. we talk to alan simpson briefly after the speech and he said to pray for the gang of six. [laughter] i know you had a lot of issues with balsam cent. that was the senator simpson statement. is he right? >> i pray for many of my colleagues. [laughter] -- the deficit is the symptom and spending is the disease. the president talked about shared sacrifice. the problem is on the spending side. we know that in the postwar era, revenues have averaged 18.5% of gdp. they have been temporarily down through the recession which has been exacerbated by the president's policies. in all the models, revenue comes back and marginally increases beyond that point. spending goes from its historic 20% of gdp to 40% over the next generation. you would have to double taxes on the next generation, crush the economy, crushed jobs and frankly lose the american dream if you define that as your children having greater opportunities in a higher standard of living and you have had. when we see shared sacrifice, the only thing we see our

chairman paul ryan has made the most serious attempt, i think, maybe in history to deal with the systemic threats our country faces to tackle our long-term fiscal challenges. now, the bowles and simpson debt commission cochairmen appointed by president obama -- his own commission -- described paul ryan's budget this way: a serious, honest, straightforward approach to addressing our nation's enormous fiscal challenges. they went on to say -- quote -- "going forward, anyone who issues an alternative plan to chairman ryan's should be held to the same standard when offering their solutions. we simply cannot back away from these issues." close quote. rather than defend the president's budget or offer an alternative, what we've been seeing in this chamber are just attacks on congressman ryan, attacks on anybody that says change has got to occur. they act like nothing has to change. many remain in denial. our chairman, senator conrad, who said so many good things -- our democratic chairman -- about the need to challenge the status quo and make changes to put our country on the right path, said representative ryan's proposal is partisan and ideological. he provides dramatic tax cuts for the

chairman paul ryan has made the most serious attempt, i think, maybe in history to deal with the systemic threats our country faces to tackle our long-term fiscal challenges. now, the bowles and simpsonmmission cochairmen appointed by president obama -- his own commission -- described paul ryan's budget this way: a serious, honest, straightforward approach to addressing our nation's enormous fiscal challenges. they went on to say -- quote -- "going forward, anyone who issues an alternative plan to chairman ryan's should be held to the same standard when offering their solutions. we simply cannot back away from these issues." close quote. rather than defend the president's budget or offer an alternative, what we've been seeing in this chamber are just attacks on congressman ryan, attacks on anybody that says change has got to occur. they act like nothing has to change. many remain in denial. our chairman, senator conrad, who said so many good things -- our democratic chairman -- about the need to challenge the status quo and make changes to put our country on the right path, said representative ryan's proposal is partisan and ideological. he provides dramatic tax cuts for the wealthie

paul. i served with him on the bowles-simpson deficit commission. we spent a lot of time together. he's a very bright person and has been give in' big assignment as chairman of the house appropriation. he and i have different views of the world of poll -- politics and as you can imagine, we have different views and i respect him for his intelligence. but he's laid out for a plan now for house republicans, a budget plan, which is very specific in the goals that he set for america. now, there are some things that paul and i agree o. we agree -- paul and i agree o. we agree on the fact that we are facing a deficit crisis in this country. we cannot continue to borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend. it's unsustainability. and we borrow the money from countries like china. china is a nation that is hard-charging and competing with the united states, and they're one of our major creditors. now, that's a delicate position to be in, when a country that you're competing with for jobs and economic growth also happens to be your banker, your creditor. that's the case. we can't sustain that

chairman paul ryan has made the most serious attempt, i think, maybe in history to deal with the systemic threats our country faces to tackle our long-term fiscal challenges. now, the bowles and simpson debt commission cochairmen appointed by president obama -- his own commission -- described paul ryan's budget this way: a serious, honest, straightforward approach to addressing our nation's enormous fiscal challenges. they went on to say -- quote -- "going forward, anyone who issues an alternative plan to chairman ryan's should be held to the same standard when offering their solutions. we simply cannot back away from these issues." close quote. rather than defend the president's budget or offer an alternative, what we've been seeing in this chamber are just attacks on congressman ryan, attacks on anybody that says change has got to occur. they act like nothing has to change. many remain in denial. our chairman, senator conrad, who said so many good things -- our democratic chairman -- about the need to challenge the status quo and make changes to put our country on the right path, said representative ryan's proposal is partisan and ideological. he provides dramatic tax cuts for the

senator simpson is a republican senator, and he was there. pauls budget which was passed by the house last week, while he meets the request for 2012 for the parent -- defense spending, he includes language that says things need to be on the table. we have people on both sides of the aisle taking a closer look at defense spending. host: kate brannen is a correspondent with defense news. thank you for talking about military spending. we appreciate that. we'll continue looking at what the deficit commission had to say, its recommendation for tackling the nation's debt and deficit. tomorrow, we'll be talking with alice rivlin about the overall -- overhaul tax policies, and then we'll wrap up the series looking at social security solvency with our guest andy stern. the present will be departing around 10:00 a.m. this morning in route to san francisco. he arrives

but i have to acknowledge that your former colleague, senator simpson, and bowles said this about paul ryan's proposed budget in the house. that it is -- quote -- "a serious, honest, straightforward approach to addressing our nation's enormous fiscal challenges." "our enormous fiscal challenges." all right. they go on to say this -- and i think it is relevant, as you suggested, to the president's speech this afternoon. they go on to say -- quote -- "going forward, anyone who issues an alternative plan to chairman ryan's should be held to the same standard when offering their solutions. we simply cannot back away from these issues." i know that's a firm, strong statement. i know it's probably different from what we're going to hear from the president, which is speech and vision and hopes. but don't you think we do have a right, aren't they correct, this bipartisan commission, appointed by the president, aren't these leaders correct to say we expect you, mr. president, to fulfill your statutory duty to submit a real budget? and if you've changed it from the one you submitted earlier, sub

paul ryan and the house republicans who voted against bowles-simpson made it clear that they did notdo so because of the revenue issue. they did it because of the tell you to reduce health care spending on the bowles-simpson commission. the billionaire's tax is not going to happen. that is contrary to basic republican economic philosophy. >> i want to go back to the gentleman's question about the increase in unfavorability of the tea party and vic fazio's remark about michele bachmann identifying with the tea party and see herself as elitists. is there a link -- see herself as the leader. is there a link between that identification and the drop in the favorability side of the tea party? >> i do not think it is individuals. i think it is by its that are going on that are unpopular in the country. you see the current popularity of john kasich and scott walker. democrats have done a good job of labeling everything that is unpopular as being tea party. it is not clear to me that there is any leader of the tea party. many people would like tothemsea party. >> there is a natural factor beh

know if anyone has compared the paul ryan proposition with [unintelligible] host: thank you for the call. the president referred to the president's budget by senator simpson and erskine bowles. which the president has not completely embraced. guest: the main difference that you see between those plans is that the debt commission basically puts everything on the table. they talk about the budget tax code on the table. eliminating so-called tax expenditures and cutting defense spending on the table. mr. ryan's plan would get into discretionary spending and does not get into the tax overhaul in a big way. the main criticism from democrats and other critics. that it deals with only half of the problem. as mentioned, it could more of everything on the table. host: this story this morning, the finding being liberal in the years of debt. guest: i think that he is -- i disagree, respectively, with peters premise here. president obama has never been pressed to find anything. i think that president obama has defined himself in his own politics outside of the context of the different movements within the democratic family. one of the reasons that president obama, ev

know if anyone has compared the paul ryan proposition with [unintelligible] host: thank you for the call. the president referred to the president's budget by senator simpson and erskine bowles. which the president has not completely embraced. guest: the main difference that you see between those plans is that the debt commission basically puts everything on the table. they talk about the budget tax code on the table. eliminating so-called tax expenditures and cutting defense spending on the table. mr. ryan's plan would get into discretionary spending and does not get into the tax overhaul in a big way. the main criticism from democrats and other critics. that it deals with only half of the problem. as mentioned, it could more of everything on the table. host: this story this morning, the finding being liberal in the years of debt. guest: i think that he is -- i disagree, respectively,hihihihin pressed to find anything. i think that president obama has defined himself in his own politics outside of the context of the different movements within the democratic family. one of the reasons that president obama, even as a senator, was successful, is that he neve